Pure Land

Pure Land

A True Story of Three Lives, Three Cultures

and the Search for Heaven on Earth

by Annette McGivney

"[Pure Land] is so gripping, so well reported, and so well told that it deserves space on the bookshelf next to major commercial successes like Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild and Terry Tempest Williams' Refuge."—OUTSIDE MAGAZINE

Pure Land

Pure Land

A True Story of Three Lives, Three Cultures

and the Search for Heaven on Earth

by Annette McGivney

"[Pure Land] is so gripping, so well reported, and so well told that it deserves space on the bookshelf next to major commercial successes like Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild and Terry Tempest Williams' Refuge."—OUTSIDE MAGAZINE

Tomomi Hanamure, a Japanese citizen who loved exploring the wilderness of the American West, was killed on her birthday May 8, 2006. She was stabbed 29 times as she hiked to Havasu Falls on the Havasupai Indian Reservation at the bottom of Grand Canyon. Her killer was an 18-year old Havasupai youth named Randy Wescogame. Pure Land is the story of this tragedy—the most brutal murder in the history of Grand Canyon. But it is also the story of how McGivney’s quest to investigate the victim’s life and death wound up guiding the author through her own life-threatening crisis. On this journey stretching from the southern tip of Japan to the bottom of Grand Canyon, and into the ugliest aspects of human behavior, Pure Land offers proof of the healing power of nature and the resiliency of the human spirit. (Photos from left: Tomomi Hamamure with her dog Blues; Havasu Falls in Grand Canyon, Havasupai Reservation.)

Story

There is such tragic irony here. The very things that Japanese tourist Tomomi Hanamure is so deeply passionate about—the wild, stark, beautiful American West and Native American culture—are what leads her to her violent death. Around this single horrific event Annette McGivney has masterfully woven three separate, highly personal narratives.

— S.C. GWYNNE, AUTHOR OF EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON, A FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE

McGivney intuitively grounds her narrative while exploring humanity’s roots of culture and origins of character, like the light of the sun awakening each intricate layer of earth in the deepest of canyons. She’s a storyteller of the highest caliber, with a style reminiscent of Jon Krakauer’s journalistic skill and unmistakable purpose.

— CARINE MCCANDLESS, AUTHOR OF THE WILD TRUTH, THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING FOLLOW-UP TO INTO THE WILD

Pure Land reads like Into the Wild, but with a female protagonist, and by an author who is even more fearless than Krakauer in her quest to understand her past, her motivations, and her desire to make sense of a brutal, possibly unavoidable murder.

—TRACY ROSS, AUTHOR OF THE SOURCE OF ALL THINGS: A MEMOIR

Story

There is such tragic irony here. The very things that Japanese tourist Tomomi Hanamure is so deeply passionate about—the wild, stark, beautiful American West and Native American culture—are what leads her to her violent death. Around this single horrific event Annette McGivney has masterfully woven three separate, highly personal narratives.

— S.C. GWYNNE, AUTHOR OF EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON, A FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE

McGivney intuitively grounds her narrative while exploring humanity’s roots of culture and origins of character, like the light of the sun awakening each intricate layer of earth in the deepest of canyons. She’s a storyteller of the highest caliber, with a style reminiscent of Jon Krakauer’s journalistic skill and unmistakable purpose.

— CARINE MCCANDLESS, AUTHOR OF THE WILD TRUTH, THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING FOLLOW-UP TO INTO THE WILD

Pure Land reads like Into the Wild, but with a female protagonist, and by an author who is even more fearless than Krakauer in her quest to understand her past, her motivations, and her desire to make sense of a brutal, possibly unavoidable murder.

—TRACY ROSS, AUTHOR OF THE SOURCE OF ALL THINGS: A MEMOIR

Ride

In Pure Land, Annette McGivney has gathered together three disparate narratives and braided them into a bewitching tapestry of darkness and light, pain and atonement, along with the unexpected gifts that can sometimes accompany profoundly devastating loss. A horrifying, uplifting, and deeply sympathetic exploration of the manner in which crimes can continue to haunt all who are touched by them, victims and perpetrators alike, trapping them within a web of grief and longing that is tethered between the redemptive pillars of truth and forgiveness.

— KEVIN FEDARKO, AUTHOR OF THE EMERALD MILE: THE EPIC STORY OF THE FASTEST RIDE IN HISTORY THROUGH THE HEART OF THE GRAND CANYON

In Pure Land, just as the Colorado formed the Grand Canyon, Annette McGivney shows how landscape and the circumstances of geography, politics and history formed the lives of Randy Wescogame and Tomomi Hanamure as well as her own. With such incredible compassion, deep insight, and crafted language, McGivney shapes her stories as richly as the landscape has shaped their lives.

— NICOLE WALKER, AUTHOR OF EGG

Ride

In Pure Land, Annette McGivney has gathered together three disparate narratives and braided them into a bewitching tapestry of darkness and light, pain and atonement, along with the unexpected gifts that can sometimes accompany profoundly devastating loss. A horrifying, uplifting, and deeply sympathetic exploration of the manner in which crimes can continue to haunt all who are touched by them, victims and perpetrators alike, trapping them within a web of grief and longing that is tethered between the redemptive pillars of truth and forgiveness.

— KEVIN FEDARKO, AUTHOR OF THE EMERALD MILE: THE EPIC STORY OF THE FASTEST RIDE IN HISTORY THROUGH THE HEART OF THE GRAND CANYON

In Pure Land, just as the Colorado formed the Grand Canyon, Annette McGivney shows how landscape and the circumstances of geography, politics and history formed the lives of Randy Wescogame and Tomomi Hanamure as well as her own. With such incredible compassion, deep insight, and crafted language, McGivney shapes her stories as richly as the landscape has shaped their lives.

— NICOLE WALKER, AUTHOR OF EGG

Hike

With unflinching courage, Annette McGivney investigates the deep shadows of tragic, cyclical abuse. But Pure Land is a healing journey. McGivney’s open-hearted compassion imbues dignity on even the most troubled of our species.

— ANN CUMMINS, AUTHOR OF YELLOWCAKE AND RED ANT HOUSE

McGivney does a masterful job weaving three life stories together making Pure Land a compelling saga that underscores the inestimable value of nurture and nature in shaping lives—for good and bad—and in the end, the incredible healing power of family love and wilderness.

— THOMAS MYERS, AUTHOR OF OVER THE EDGE: DEATH IN GRAND CANYON

Hike

With unflinching courage, Annette McGivney investigates the deep shadows of tragic, cyclical abuse. But Pure Land is a healing journey. McGivney’s open-hearted compassion imbues dignity on even the most troubled of our species.

— ANN CUMMINS, AUTHOR OF YELLOWCAKE AND RED ANT HOUSE

McGivney does a masterful job weaving three life stories together making Pure Land a compelling saga that underscores the inestimable value of nurture and nature in shaping lives—for good and bad—and in the end, the incredible healing power of family love and wilderness.